Kinect Sensors Convert Your House Into a Video Game

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Microsoft's Xbox Kinect system brings real people into virtual
worlds — scanning people jumping around their living room, for
example, to animate characters playing volleyball on a virtual
beach.

Now, a company called Matterport is using the technology in the
Kinect to turn the living room itself — or even an entire house —
into a virtual world.

Looking like a giant potato, Matterport's scanner holds two
sensors made by PrimeSense, the company that provides the tech
inside Microsoft's Kinect. One sensor is angled upward and one
downward, and the device rotates on a tripod to scan everything
in about a 15-foot radius. Moving the scanner around the room (or
building) produces overlapping scans that the software stitches
together into a 3D model of a real place.

"It's like a first-person-shooter in your home," said Florence
Shaffer of Matterport during a demonstration at CES.

Combining data from the two sensors, and using video-game
creation software, Matterport produces the kind of 3D virtual
environment found in ultra-detailed first-person-shooter games
such as "Halo."

At CES, Shaffer showed on screen a virtual model of a
five-room preschool, first looking straight down at the floor
plan. She then swooped into the building, which became a complete
3D environment, with every chair, drawing or doorway represented
in full color and to scale. The computer model even took into
account how objects were arranged. While "walking" through the
school, Shaffer bumped into a table. She could also jump or
crouch down.

While fragging enemies in your living room would be cool,
Matterport has more business-oriented approaches in mind for the
future. Realtors, for example, could show clients what a house
looks like before they visit it. And homeowners who are
redecorating could see exactly how that shade of paint would look
on the wall or what that new wood floor would really be like.

Stores could also scan their furniture and make it downloadable.
For example, someone could select a couch and place it in their
virtual home to see how well it would fit — including with
different color options.

Should someone want to, they could even use Matterport's computer
model to 3D
print their house in miniature, Shaffer said.

Matterport 's
potato-on-a-tripod setup is a bit awkward, but another is in the
works. PrimeSense has come
out with a new sensor system, called Capri, that's less than
half the size of what's in today's Kinect. With the new sensors,
Matterport reckons it can sell scanners that are about the size
and price of "a nice digital SLR." The device will go on sale
this summer, with pre-orders starting sooner.